A bird in the hand... and out.

What a crazy and magical thing. My day started with a lovebird (guess which one) laying an egg in my hand! Here's the story:

When it was time to go to work, I made the birds their warm noodles as I do every morning. Lately, Zen has been so excited about the noodle that she's flown right in front of Cory and I to get to her cage. This morning, she didn't come. So I called her. And I called her again. I went to her cubby and knocked and she didn't answer. I started freaking out thinking she'd gone into the library and was eating books. No Zen. Went to the kitchen, no Zen. So I went back to the cubby and knocked, shook her Legos, all the tricks that usually work. Well she was being more stubborn than usual. So I totally opened the cubby, and still no Zen, but I thought I heard something from her box. I started pulling at her paper shreds and she came out of the box hissing at me. I finally got her to step up onto her towel and I took her over to her cage. As I was putting her in, I looked at her and thought, "Wow, she really looks like she's going to lay an egg today." As she grabbed onto the cage bars with her beak, I looked more closely and the egg was sticking out! I wasn't going to make her hang on the side of the cage and drop her egg and watch it break, so I quickly picked her back up and she layed the egg in my hand. Then I put it in her Happy Hut and she went to pig out on seed.

After I closed Zen up and washed my hands, I went to put Cory in her cage. I think she was all traumatized from the activity, because she would not get in her cage. I called S. to tell him what was going on and went back to her and she started doing her crazy big eyed flying away from me thing. I tried for about a half hour to ignore her, then go back and try to bribe her to no avail, so long story short she got to be cage free today.

Finishing and starting

I finished the Shelridge poncho last night! (Still no pictures - maybe later in the week...) I had to leave off the last tier due to lack of yarn - I thought I was on gauge, but whatever. I used the final 2 purl rows to decrease down to 78 stitches to bind off and it's cute. It needs to be washed and blocked this weekend, and then maybe fall will magically arrive and I'll need to wear it next week.

Then I swatched the Valley Yarns Rainbow for the Portland Sweater and of course I need a #4 circular if it calls for a #6. So what did I do this morning? - ordered needles from Knit Picks (so then I'll be able to review the Options line). So it all works out in the end. Of course what did I not do this weekend? - work on the Widdershins. Maybe they'll get finished while I'm waiting for my Knit Picks shipment...

Reviews by necessity

I meant to post this earlier in the week, but my plans went awry...
I also meant to post pictures of the items I'm discussing today, but I took pictures with my phone and then realized that my laptop doesn't have Bluetooth, so I'll have to add the pictures when I have my work computer next week.

Okay, my complaint...
Friday night I was in hog heaven, watching the Bears game and happily knitting on my Shelridge Farm poncho. I was on my last row of the night, about 10-15 stitches from the end when my *%#$@ Bryson circular needle snapped at the join (or whatever you would call it if it's molded...). Well, that was my only size 6 circular and I had to work the next day all of the hours that Mosaic Yarn was open, so I had to wait until Sunday to drop the money for an Addi Turbo and let me just add that (Mom) now I am not only too good for cheap yarn, I am also too good for cheap needles. Let me add, though, that I like my Bryson dpns well enough, but I would never buy another circular.

My second review is for the best fitting socks ever! And here's where I really wish I had my picture because I am IN LOVE! I am currently knitting the Widdershins from the Knitty Summer Issue and they are too beautiful and the best fitting sock pattern I've knit yet. My next pair I'm going to use the Widdershins construction to do a ribbed sock in my Opal Tiger and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

My Widdershins review leads me to my review of 2 Knit Picks products. I'm using the Essential Tweed in Plum (but it's much darker and prettier than it looks on my computer screen). The yarn is so soft and pretty easy to work with, but I keep splitting stitches with the Knit Picks circular size 1. And this leads me to my final review of the day - the Knit Picks circulars. LOVE LOVE LOVE them - with 2 caveats. First, the tips are almost too sharp. I mentioned splitting stitches with them and I think I could probably use them as a weapon if I had to. Second, the join is a little sticky. They are a great alternative to the Addi Turbos, but not a perfect replacement. Of course, my size 1 Addi Turbo was about $15 and the size 1 Knit Picks was $5. Can I live with the 2 caveats? Absolutely. Does it depend on what I'm knitting? Probably.

Our baby

Today is Zen's 5 year anniversary with us. She has been a joy and a pain and a learning experience every day for the past 5 years. We love you, baby.

Not even close

No I absolutely didn't stick to my list. But I didn't break the bank, either. Fortunately, being an obsessive sock knitter is not the most expensive habit. Plus, Mom said that we did our part for the economy this weekend (us and 1000 other people).

Here's what I actually brought home:

a beaded shawl stick
a skein of cashmere sock yarn (but it may end up being wrist warmers or fingerless gloves)
the Swallow Hill rayon and beads for my very own April scarf
3 sock yarns: 2 skeins of Regia silk in a pretty medium brown, Opal Tiger, and Mountain Colors Bearfoote in Lodgegrass
a 665 yard skein of natural undyed Alpaca to make a shawl
a poncho kit from Shelridge Farm (Editorial comment: their yarn is beautiful and a joy to knit with!)
a needle felting kit
a felted evening bag pattern
a circular needle case (why did I wait so long to buy one?)
and the infamous Lantern Moon sheep tape measure (see comment above - what's cuter than a tape measure you pull out of a sheep's butt?)

Classes were great. Saturday morning I had Basic Brioche with Nancy Marchant and it was a good class, but hard. The basic stitch is not that hard, but I had a lot of trouble with the increases and decreases. I would have liked to try the second brioche class in the afternoon, but I definitely wasn't ready for that. Maybe next year. And maybe I'll try the brioche hat and neck warmer from Melanie Falick's "Weekend Knits". Sunday morning Mom and I had Mastering Yarn Substitution with Kellie Nuss. We both really loved her as a teacher, but there was almost too much information for a 3 hour class, so she started speaking too fast and it was a little hard to follow the math. We suggested that they should have an Intro to Yarn Substitution and then the Mastering... class. Then beginning knitters would be catered to and the Mastering could get more technical with the math.
All in all it was a great weekend, but boy was I tired last night. I really hate getting up at 6 any day of the week, but Saturday and Sunday especially hurt!

Another list

It's time for Stitches again, so it's time for another list. Let's see how closely I can stick to it...

Cashmere for socks (I don't care if I have $40 socks!)
Rayon and beads from Swallow Hill designs to make another beaded scarf.
A shawl pin.
The "Creatures of the Reef" shawl pattern.

and, I better add miscellaneous sock yarn to the list or I'll totally blow it!